On their wedding day 34 years ago, when Steve and Lynne Harrison vowed to be at each other’s side in sickness and in health, neither could have imagined the journey ahead.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) published a study in Circulation showing that, among ventricular assist device recipients, patients with a particular form of dilated cardiomyopathy known as familial dilated cardiomyopathy have better clinical outcomes compared with other forms of the disease.

A pancreas transplant is a procedure in which a healthy pancreas is removed from a donor and implanted into a patient, typically a patient who has serious health complications related to insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes. Such complications may include frequent insulin reactions, consistently poor blood sugar control, kidney damage, or other factors that cannot be controlled with routine diabetes treatment. Pancreas […]

A uterus transplant is a promising new procedure that helps some women overcome uterine factor infertility (UFI) and carry a baby. UFI is a condition in which a woman cannot get pregnant because she was born without a uterus, had it surgically removed during a hysterectomy, or has a uterus that does not function properly. […]

A heart transplant is a procedure in which a damaged or diseased heart is replaced with a healthy one, typically in patients with advanced heart failure, a condition that prevents the heart from effectively pumping blood through the body. Common conditions that can lead to advanced heart failure and heart transplantation include coronary heart disease, damaged heart […]

Lung transplantation is a procedure for end-stage lung disease to replace a diseased organ with a healthier one from a deceased organ donor. It is an option used to improve the health and prolong survival of patients. Lung transplant can benefit patients with diseases such as cystic fibrosis, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), idiopathic pulmonary […]

Carol Glover retired in 2017 after working 32 years for University of Alabama Athletics, and she was looking forward to her upcoming wedding and traveling the world with her new husband. Glover couldn’t have foreseen that her journey would lead to her becoming the oldest kidney-pancreas transplant patient at the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute (CTI).

“I started taking cough drops for a minor sore throat,” he says. “Then one day, when I was doing rounds before my shift, I became weak and had shortness of breath.”

Many young adults create TikTok videos, but Jessica Hernandez may be the only 20-year-old who has used the social media platform to document her heart-lung transplant journey.

UAB Medicine clinicians take pride in the excellent care they provide for patients and families. In 2020, employees Kacy and Daniel Tucker got an up-close view of that care – this time from the patient side. An organ transplant surgery and the premature birth of their child at the same time are not what the Tuckers would have planned, but the family now reports good outcomes for both experiences.

On September 30, 2021, a University of Alabama at Birmingham medical team transplanted two pig kidneys into a brain-dead human recipient, a major step toward future pig-kidney transplants to people with kidney failure.

Surgeons with the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine reached an institutional milestone in February, surpassing 16,000 total organ transplants performed since its first almost 54 years ago.